Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie Recipe

As I’ve progressed along in my P90X Fitness plan, I’m finding I’m more and more hungry and having to eat a lot to keep up my stamina due to all the calorie-burning this fitness plan requires. I’m guessing I’m eating somewhere between 600 to 700 extra calories per day — and not gaining an ounce of weight! It feels like I’m a brand-new nursing mom who is eating like a horse. Only sometimes, I think I’m even hungrier!

At any rate, I’ve been looking for more simple ways to keep up my necessary caloric intake in a healthful fashion. This Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie was something I created last week and it’s been a smashing hit with everyone in our family. It’s so simple, it’s packed with great nutrition — especially for those who are doing intensive workouts — and it’s delicious!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

2 cups chocolate milk

3 bananas, frozen (I buy bananas when they are reduced and then cut them in half and freeze to use in smoothies or baking.)

2 tablespoon peanut butter

Put everything into the blender (we use a Vita-Mix) and blend on high until smooth (around 1 minute). Pour into serving glasses and enjoy!

Makes 3 servings. Approximately 250 calories per serving.

This is a yummy post workout drink or a perfect afternoon pick-me-up. Personally? I think it’s better than ice cream — and it’s certainly better for you!

Comments

I am sitting here drinking my own version of this. It is by far my favorite breakfast for weekday mornings. I’ve also taken to adding some yogurt (either plain or vanilla flavored) to my shakes as it help thicken it up some. The additional bananas you added would do the same thing. And yes, it is so yummy.

That sounds yummy! If you desired to step up the health factor, you could use raw whole milk, natural peanut butter, the frozen bananas, and chocolate flavored liquid stevia…..I LOVE chocolate milk, but need to try to stay away from the high fructose corn syrup found in many. The chocolate stevia, (you only need a few drops per cup), saves me money and the whole family can have chocolate milk with supper and it’s okay with mama!

This looks yum but in the direction of Joy’s comment about high fructose corn syrup….it has been linked to many illness. Sugar is not good for us and corn syrup is even worse. Cocoa has many health benefits so using it with stevia sounds like the way to go.

The cool thing is that you can now buy quite a few different brands of chocolate milk which don’t have HFCS in them — or even processed sugar! In addition, I love that this recipe is versatile enough you can tweak it do what works best for your family.

@Crystal, I’ve made homemade chocolate syrup from the Make a Mix cookbook before – no high fructose corn syrup there! (It doesn’t work so well as a topping, but great for chocolate milk, like in your smoothie.)

@Amy P, Same here – I was actually surprised to see that you have a Vita-Mix! Do you ever make green smoothies or use it to mill grains? I’d love to save up for one of these wonder blenders someday too. Any tips would be welcome!

@Megan, I would also love any tips on the most affordable way to purchase a Vita- Mix as we are planning to get one for Christmas. It doesn’t seem like there are too many options as far as price. Thanks!

I’m blessed to have a very generous dad who has purchased a Vita-Mix, Bread Machine and Wheat Grinder for me over the past three Christmases. So the cheapest way to get a Vita-Mix is to get it as a gift.

However, if that might not be an option for a Christmas or birthday gift, I’d suggest looking into getting one refurbished. They are significantly cheaper. In addition, keep your eyes peeled for used ones at garage sales or on Craigslist. Someone I know found a Vita-Mix for $5 once at a garage sale!

We spent a long time (b/c of unemployment, etc) before finally deciding on a Blendtec. It is significantly cheaper than vitamix and I love that it fits on the counter under standard sized cabinets….this way you use it daily or more often:) Anways…I found you can buy the refurbished ones on line for about $100 bucks cheaper. BTW we use it for green smoothies, making flour,etc and it works wonders:) But whichever one you want, maybe you can use some of your swagbucks or other ‘points’ to go through amazon???

Thanks Stephanie….we already have one and I use it sometimes more than once daily!!!! My kids love ‘bug juice’ instead of ‘green smoothies’!!! But maybe some of the other ladies wanting to buy one can check out craigslist and ebay:)

To avoid the sugar in chocolate milk, I use almond milk. If I use plain (you can buy the chocolate almond milk, too) I add a tablespoon of cocoa powder. It still tastes great because you are sweetening with the banana. This is also good for those not able to do dairy. And if there are nut allergies-go with rice milk.

See my comment below about peeling…definitely do that first and no need to thaw before blending, your blender will chop them up perfectly and it makes a wonderful cold smoothie with a frozen banana. Good luck! :O)

Yes, definitely peel before freezing, as I learned, it is REALLY hard to peel them after freezing. I dot mine with a paper towel as well, they get a few ice crystals on them but doesn’t harm them…just adds a bit more ice to our smoothies! Good luck!

Wait til they are super ripe, peel them, cut them in half, and place on cookie sheet. Freeze until solid and then place in a big ziploc bag. When you freeze them on a cookie sheet first, they are easy to pull apart when you only need one or 2. You can also freeze them in the peel, but I find that it hurts my hands (too cold!!!!), and is too messy!

@Michele, You can just freeze them without peeling, I do it all the time. In fact, I have about 10 pounds of frozen (whole, unpeeled) bananas in my freezer as I type. And I only freeze them for Chunky Monkey Smoothies (a name for the chocolate/banana/peanut butter smoothie).

All I do is take them out of the freezer about 5-10 minutes before I make the smoothie. I let them sit on the counter while I get everything else ready. I cut them in half, then cut the halves in half and the peel is pretty easy to get off at that point.

I had heard you could do this, but wasn’t sure about giving it a shot until I came home from a late night run to the store in which the store had discounted a massive amount of bananas. I was very pregnant at the time and did not feel like peeling/slicing them first, so I just threw them in the freezer and hoped for the best. I’ve been freezing my bananas this way ever since.

This post makes me so happy! As a trainer I have the hardest time convincing people that by eating more frequent meals and doing high intensity training, they can really increase their metabolism so they can eat more and feel great while loosing fat and gaining/maintaning muscle. With all the wacky diet fads and bad advise out there, thanks for setting a good example of a healthy and fit lifestyle!

@Sara, I hate to admit it but I used to work at G.N.C. and when you would tell the people who wanted to lose weight to eat more filling and healthy foods 5 to 6 times a day they would give me this blank stare and then ask for the fat burners. They don’t really work unless your eating well and working out. So you might as well save the money and use it on good food. I am so excited to see how well you are doing with this program Crystal. Just eating well will give you more energy I have found. Thanks for the great comment Sara.

Just stick the bananas in the freezer with the peel on. When you are ready to use them, you can nuke them for a few seconds or leave them to thaw for 10 – 15 min on the counter. They slide easily out of the peels.

As a P90X grad myself I know the feeling of eating a ton! As long as you pick good, clean foods it is an amazing program. I’m actually thinking of starting round two.
There is a product I recently discovered in a magazine and ordered it to try it, since I also love chocolate peanut butter smoothies! It is a powdered peanut butter that tastes great…and has 85% less fat! Anyways, I’m sure if coupon mom contacted them they would give a discount code like the magazine did if anyone is interested. It also comes in chocolate!http://www.bellplantation.com/
Thanks for a great site!

They sell this at the local grocery store and had samples of it out one day. I thought the concept a little strange but it tastes good. Using it powdered in smoothies is a great idea that hadn’t occurred to me though. Thanks.

I am tickled that you have a Vitamix – I bought one recently too, and it was SO worth the investment. I use it daily. To those looking for a good deal, the company sells refurbished ones (that still offer the 7 year warranty) for about $100 less than brand new. Yay!

I’m a huge fan of the following variation of this shake! I actually just bought a new Waring Pro Bar Blender (500 watt) blender this weekend becaues my old one finally gave out. I used it for the first time this morning to make the following shake and worked so much faster than my old Cuisinart blender!

That looks and sounds so yummy, Crystal! And GREAT job on the photos… drinks are always the most challenging for me

For freezing bananas — I like to peel and then wrap (a few at a time) in plastic wrap or put in a ziplock baggie. We don’t have a very big freezer so I don’t freeze individually on cookie sheets.

I have tried freezing unpeeled bananas, after hearing how “easy” it was. Well, it is easy to throw them in the freezer, but then they need to be thawed before using or it’s nearly impossible to peel them! So thaw, then cut off the end, and squeeze out the mushy banana and use for baking. But for smoothies, peeled is the way to go in my opinion!!

I laughed when I saw this post, because when you shared your peanut butter banana smoothie “recipe” however long ago, I made it one night for my husband (who liked it)–but the next time, he suggested adding chocolate and we have done so in one form or another every time since then–which is at least once a week!! He has started adding tons of bananas recently to get it really cold and really thick. And adding flax oil/ground flax seed is yet another way to add more nutrition.

Crystal….how are you finding the time to do all the exercising for the P90x. As a mother of 2 little ones, the thought of devoting all that time to exercising makes it unappealing and kind of impractical. Meaning my kids need my attention for this or that and I would have to keep stopping But I would still love to try it. any pointers? Do you break up your exercise time?

I usually do it in the morning before they get up. But when that doesn’t happen, I just stick Silas in the playpen and have the girls play in the same room or join me in exercising. On occasion, I’ll break up the workouts, but I usually try to do them straight through (with occasional starts and stops if the children need me for something!).

Honestly, it hasn’t felt like much time at all most days and I’m truly loving it. In fact, I’ve been adding in some extra running or elliptical some days (in the afternoons or evenings) just because I’m enjoying it so much. (Yes, call me weird!)

@Amity, This is something I struggle with as well…with only one child (and one on the way). I would love any tips you may have! I’ve tried to exercise in the morning but I’ve found that I’d need to wake up about 2 hours earlier than my daughter simply because of exercise time, shower time and my Bible reading time and I haven’t had the energy, ever, to do so as she wakes up around 6:30 am.

My best advice is to go to bed early. That’s the only way I can wake up early. And I’m so much more productive in the mornings than in the evenings anyway! And maybe save the shower for your daughter’s naptime? Or, put her in a playpen with some special toys (not sure how old she is so that might not work) while you workout. Even just 20 or 30 minutes of exercise can make a world of difference, I think!

Crystal, So excited to read that you are doing Vita-Mix and P90-X–way to go!! I’ve LOVED my Vita-Mix, use it several times a week, and has probably paid for itself these past few years with all the bread I make in it–most nights I’ll grind the cracked wheat, add the other ingredients, let it rise in a bread pan and bake it, and breakfast is ready for the next a.m. So healthy, so yummy and so easy–no kneading.
Thanks for all your encouraging tips–keep up the great work, and may God keep blessing you and your family!

I love that you post your p90x recipes on here. I am doing the program (trying to stick with it) and I loved the protien bar recipe you had. I would also like to know when you do your workouts and if you get interrupted. I have been doing mine around 8pm after my son goes to bed.

I get up early (usually sometime between 4 and 5 a.m.) to get in my Bible reading, journaling and exercising before the children wake up. I’m blessed that they don’t wake up before 6:30 – 6:45 a.m. most days and sometimes sleep in until 7:00 to 7:30 a.m.!

Yes, I’m still nursing… though Silas is slowly self-weaning so he’s down to two times in a 24-hour period so I’m not really needing to consume much extra in the way of calories for that — probably around 100-200 calories extra most days in addition to the 600-700 extra for exercising.

I like to use almond milk instead of cow’s milk and cocoa powder to make it chocolate. (no HFCS) The only produce our grocery store reduces is brown bananas- peel and straight to the freezer for smoothies!
I also add either flaxseed or wheat germ.

Thanks ladies who posted alternate recipes, i wanted to try this to but i put in this recipe and came up with 325 calories per serving not 250 and not enough protein per serving to justify the calories, Im sure its great though if your on p90X since your burning allot and building muscle

Jen: It depends on the chocolate milk and peanut butter you use as to the calories. I based the calories on the actual calories of the peanut butter and chocolate milk we use. The calorie info online showed much higher when I inputted this.

If you want to add more protein, I’d suggest adding in 2-3 scoops of protein powder.

And yes, I wouldn’t recommend this recipe for people who are trying to lose weight or counting calories; it’s definitely not low-fat.

Like a few others, I use almond milk for smoothies instead of cow’s milk. Sometimes I use coconut milk but the taste really varies. Usually I make my own chocolate syrup but if I haven’t gotten around to it then I use cocoa powder and agave syrup. I’ve even used hot cocoa mix in a pinch but that makes for a pretty rich smoothie. More often than not I also throw in a handful of spinach leaves. You hardly taste it, honest; and it adds calcium for us dairy-free folks. But then definitely drink the smoothie while it’s fresh. The spinach does not do well when it sits.

Three servings as stated at the bottom of the recipe. Bananas are somewhere around 85 calories each, depending upon the size. I usually use medium bananas. The total calorie count came directly from my milk jug and peanut butter jar, so it’s going to vary a bit depending upon what kind of milk/PB you use.

Hey, if you throw in ice cubes, you will bulk up the drink and give it more of an ice-creamy texture. I use Ovaltine instead of chocolate milk, and yogurt. You know you can buy chocolate flavored protein powder too.

What a great recipe!! Thanks, Crystal, for sharing! My hubby and I are wanting to start P90X, but have to save the money before we invest. We both need the incentive and help getting in shape.
Thank you also for the tips on how you exercise with little underfoot. I’ve started just this week trying to get up early, but I definitely have to have sleep! I need the discipline to also go to bed early!!!

This smoothie is great! As my husband and I recently started Power 90 (a less intense version of P90X to get us started) I have found that I constantly need to be eating and find as much protein as possible. I’m not in this to lose weight, I want to gain muscle. Anyways, I halved the recipe and added a scoop of protein powder to my smoothie. I have a chocolate peanut butter flavored powder and it mixed in nicely! I haven’t like simply adding the powder to milk because I never get it completely dissolved and just has a funky taste, but in this smoothie it is great!
The protein powder is also great with your protein bar recipe!! I used chia seeds instead of flaxseed and cranberries instead of raisins. So yummy!!!

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